During the Grand Final of theOverwatch League season 2021, the second opus of FPS competitive from Blizzard made its show by presenting us the reworks of two heroes and an exhibition match played by professionals.
The opportunity to get a taste of what awaits us at the launch of the next season of the Overwatch League and to get a better idea of ​​​​the direction Blizzard is taking on the overall balance of the game to come.
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Overwatch 2: an early version of the game will be used for the 2022 season of the Overwatch League
(Re)Works in Progress
Before opening the hostilities of the Finals, Geoff Goodman, lead hero designer, shared some information on the development of Overwatch 2 and the rebalances in progress. According to him, the game is progressing well and the teams are constantly testing new ways of balancing.
In the preamble, he recalled that this second opus should see a drastic reduction in the effects of mass controls. The Overwatch Team thus intends to make the game more dynamic, in line with the reduction of the number of heroes per team from six to five.
Sombra, the very talented and manipulative hacker, was the first to reveal her rework. To match the developers' desire for mass control effects, his Hack ability has been massively reworked.
First, the cooldown of the latter has been greatly reduced and will last eight seconds on the affected target. Unlike the original version of the Hack, this new form will only nullify enemy skills for one second. In return, hacked targets will be visible to Sombra and her team, even behind walls, for eight seconds. Additionally, a new passive will allow Sombra to deal 50% more damage to hacked targets. She will be able to hack her targets even while invisible, though this will briefly reveal her.
Finally, his ultimate EMP skill will no longer affect hitpoints as a shield, but will deal damage equal to 40% of each affected target's current hitpoints. Additionally, as all targets hit by the EMP will be hacked, its new passive increasing its damage dealt will come into play for all opponents caught in the area of ​​effect.
Overall, it will therefore be less painful for its opponents, but much more formidable on the offensive level.
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New look for Bastion
After Sombra, it's the turn of Bastion, our dear robot friend of nature, to present his rework. This one also flaunted his new look, which notably sports a glorious cap, courtesy of Torbjörn.
For starters, his personal repair has been replaced with an alt-fire that functions like a grenade launcher. The main fire will have a much more limited rate of fire, but will inflict much more damage. The turret mode has also been greatly reworked: instead of remaining a static target, Bastion will now be able to move, at a slower speed than in its normal form. In return, this new turret mode will have a limited duration.
Finally, his ultimate ability will no longer transform him into a tank, but into a kind of artillery piece or mortar. The camera will take on more height in this form, similar to Doomfist's ultimate ability. He will thus have three shots before returning to his original form, which will each inflict 300 points of damage in direct hit and 300 points of damage in zone. These shots will be considered projectiles and can therefore be blocked or countered like any regular projectile.
Bastion should therefore be much more viable and be a much less easy target thanks to its mobility gain in turret mode. However, he will no longer be able to count on his personal repair to be self-sufficient.
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A game within the game
To let spectators and players breathe during the Grand Final, halftime was the opportunity to attend an exhibition match commented on Overwatch 2 with two teams of five professional players. To better illustrate the novelties of this second opus, we were able to see the new Push game mode on the superb map of Rome. Of course, the stars of this exhibition match were Bastion and Sombra, in order to better see their reworks in a competitive situation.
Given the game mode and the presence of a single tank in this new iteration of multiplayer, the action seems to be much more present than in the base game. Ultimate abilities are also less likely to rain down, making them all the more impactful. We were also able to take advantage of the work done on the graphic and sound aspects of the game with different heroes.
Following this exhibition match, Aaron Keller, director of the game, intervened to come back to this presentation with the casters. He also took the opportunity to specify that the 2022 season of the Overwatch League should welcome the 32 original heroes in their reworked version. It could even be that new heroes are inaugurated there.
Unfortunately, no release window has been specified, although it's likely that Overwatch 2 will soon be available to ordinary people after the launch of the next season of the Overwatch League, scheduled for April 2022. Either way, the sequel to Blizzard's hit competitive FPS will be releasing on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch… Soon TM.
